The best way to Conduct an E-mail Advertising and marketing Audit

Whether or not it’s a brand new yr, a brand new fiscal yr, otherwise you’re beginning a brand new job, doing an e mail advertising and marketing audit of your present campaigns and database is a great option to start. These audit numbers might help you identify a baseline for enchancment, in addition to bragging rights.

You possibly can start an audit in many various methods. On this article, I’ll present you ways I’d conduct an e mail advertising and marketing audit, however after all, you’re welcome to choose and select to make this work higher for you.

For this audit, I will probably be specializing in the next:

• E-mail sending programs
• E-mail advertising and marketing database
• Segmentations and lists
• E-mail advertising and marketing campaigns
• E-mail templates
• E-mail processes 

E-mail sending programs

That is utterly elective, however at bigger organizations, it’s typically a good suggestion to compile a listing of all your sending platforms. Yearly, pay attention to any adjustments on this checklist. For instance, at some firms, emails are deployed from the advertising and marketing automation platform in addition to instruments like Outreach, Salesforce, and Gainsight. I hold a easy checklist of those sending programs, in addition to system house owners and sending domains.

E-mail advertising and marketing database 

I are inclined to concentrate on my advertising and marketing automation database for this train, but when your organization makes use of an information lake to pipe knowledge into your Advertising and marketing Automation Platform (MAP) or E-mail Service Supplier (ESP), you possibly can look there too. I start the e-mail advertising and marketing audit with a spreadsheet or Google sheet with all my knowledge so I can each share it and put it aside for comparisons later. 

It’s a good suggestion to take a yearly (and even quarterly) audit of those seven elements:

1. The full variety of contacts: That is what number of distinctive e mail addresses you could have in your MAP or ESP.
2. The full variety of marketable contacts: Outline marketable because it pertains to your organization and enterprise. For instance, contact data which are unsubscribed,  lacking “job title” or “nation” knowledge values is probably not instantly marketable (this can be a B2B instance).
3. The variety of marketable contacts that you simply’ve emailed within the final 12, 6, and three months: This provides you a great indication for those who’re lacking out on mailing giant cohorts of your database, and it lets you create a technique for reaching them.
4. The variety of marketable contacts which are inactive (or you possibly can flip it to view lively contacts) within the final 12, 6, and three months:  As soon as once more, you’ll have to work inside what you are promoting guidelines to determine a definition for “inactive.” Usually it means contacts haven’t been opening or clicking emails, filling out varieties, visiting the web site, and so on. Why measure inactive contacts? As a result of it’s good follow to suppress inactive contacts out of your e mail advertising and marketing campaigns.
5. Database progress: The variety of new contacts added within the yr. 
6. Database attrition: The variety of contacts which have unsubscribed or laborious bounced. You too can embrace one other cell in your spreadsheet with the variety of contacts who turned inactive. 
7. The full variety of emails despatched: As an alternative of contacts, for this metric, we need to know what number of whole emails had been despatched for the yr, quarter, or month. 

Right here’s an instance of how I arrange this a part of an e mail advertising and marketing audit spreadsheet:

Segmentations and lists

In case you solely use a small variety of lists (or segments), use this time to suppose by whether or not creating further segments is required. Or, for those who suppose it’s a worthwhile concept to check, you can begin planning for these checks. In case you make use of dozens (and even lots of) of segments in your e mail advertising and marketing, now is an efficient time to ask these questions:

• What are the segments you’re utilizing in your advertising and marketing? In case you use too many to rely, what are the important segments you’re utilizing?
• How is every phase performing? How are your important segments performing?
• What enhancements are you able to make to your segmentation?
• Do you could have the necessity for a brand new phase or segments? For instance, your organization began advertising and marketing to a brand new persona. Do you could have an identical phase created?

E-mail advertising and marketing campaigns

In case you’re an e mail advertising and marketing staff of 1, you may already observe which campaigns you despatched for the yr and the way they carried out.

Nonetheless, for those who’re half of a bigger firm the place a number of groups are sending emails out of the identical MAP, it’s a good suggestion to pay attention to what business-as-usual (BAU) campaigns had been despatched, who they had been despatched to, and the way they carried out. If the campaigns had been a part of an A/B check, I hold observe of these outcomes, in addition to the winner (if there was one). 

In your spreadsheet, make a column for:

• E-mail marketing campaign title
• Date deployed (or dates)
• Phase or goal checklist
• Topic line 
• A/B check (if relevant)
• Variety of emails despatched
• Arduous bounce price
• Smooth bounce price
• Distinctive open price
• Distinctive click-through price
• Click on-to-open ratio
• Unsubscribe price
• Conversion price (elective, this metric may not be available)

That is mainly simply an e mail advertising and marketing marketing campaign report for the entire yr. Please add or take away columns to suit the wants of your e mail advertising and marketing audit! With an entire yr’s price of marketing campaign knowledge, you possibly can see what efforts have been extra profitable than others.

Do the identical for automated e mail campaigns. Word which campaigns are working, and the way they carried out. Chances are you’ll not want to incorporate a deployment date, however you might pull the remainder of the metrics.  

E-mail templates

So that you’ve taken a have a look at your e mail campaigns and your database, however you don’t need to neglect about your e mail template(s)! Throughout this annual e mail advertising and marketing audit, make a remark of your present templates.

Ask your stakeholders and your self: 

• Do you want further e mail templates or modules (sections inside your e mail templates)? 
• Have you ever obtained any suggestions or discovered any new findings in earlier A/B checks? 
• Have your e mail templates been examined within the final yr? If not, it’s an ideal alternative to make use of E-mail on Acid to check compatibility and repair, replace. 
• Does your organization have a brand new emblem or imagery that you must replace? 
• Does your footer want a brand new copyright yr? That is the time of yr to make these enhancements, together with making your templates accessible and darkish mode pleasant.

E-mail course of

A brand new yr is a chance to audit your present e mail manufacturing course of and see the place you can also make enhancements. Want concepts? Try this text titled The best way to Enhance Your E-mail Creation Course of, by yours really. 

Now that you simply’ve compiled all this nice info collectively in your superior spreadsheet, it’s time to share the e-mail advertising and marketing audit along with your staff. Additionally, if you wish to go the additional mile, create a presentation or slide deck add bits of your knowledge and learnings to it. Share it along with your supervisor and staff to point out them what e mail advertising and marketing has been as much as within the final yr! Additionally, use this knowledge to create your e mail advertising and marketing technique for 2021. What campaigns will be repeated with a couple of tweaks? What automated campaigns are performing greatest however may doubtlessly do higher? 

Obtain an E-mail Advertising and marketing Motion Plan

After auditing final yr’s e mail campaigns, you should utilize that info to tell your 2021 e mail advertising and marketing technique.

If the adjustments that got here with 2020 left you scratching your head, try the particular report, E-mail Advertising and marketing and the Subsequent Regular, that includes insights from Senior E-mail Advertising and marketing Supervisor, Betsy Grondy.

Writer: Nout Boctor-Smith

Nout (rhymes with fruit) is an e mail marketer who has been concerned within the digital advertising and marketing area for 13+ years and focuses on B2B emails and progress advertising and marketing. She by no means takes herself critically and is usually described as a goofball. You possibly can normally discover her chatting on the #emailgeeks Slack neighborhood, obsessing over vogue, petting cats, and consuming scrumptious meals. Go to 9 Lives Digital to search out out extra about what Nout can do in your firm. Join with Nout on LinkedIn.

Writer: Nout Boctor-Smith

Nout (rhymes with fruit) is an e mail marketer who has been concerned within the digital advertising and marketing area for 13+ years and focuses on B2B emails and progress advertising and marketing. She by no means takes herself critically and is usually described as a goofball. You possibly can normally discover her chatting on the #emailgeeks Slack neighborhood, obsessing over vogue, petting cats, and consuming scrumptious meals. Go to 9 Lives Digital to search out out extra about what Nout can do in your firm. Join with Nout on LinkedIn.